"Imagine"
2 Corinthians 3:17-4:6; Mark 9: 2-9
Transfiguration Sunday

Elijah, the prophet/the collective memory of all that has gone before, and Moses, the law with its intention for good,…and Jesus….together on a mountaintop….and James and John and Peter are there! And Peter speaks.

Speak. Some of us, in awkward/tough situations, when we don’t’ know what to say, say nothing. Now a pause to think can be a mighty powerful self-care tool and give time to form a non-reactive response to a tough or awkward situation. But saying nothing, going silent….says as much as words could ever say. How often in the awkward moment, we go silent. What are we really saying?

Silent. Not Peter. He doesn’t go silent. In response to the extraordinary events he and the other two disciples witness, he says aloud the first thing to come into his head. He relieves the tension in the air, diverts the attention to something else…..perhaps to control what seemed to be getting out of hand or at least it seemed bigger than he could handle.

Peter got the urge to organize, manage, build something. Imagine that! Peter is not alone in his urge…to build something, to divert attention, to release tension….do something, anything something concrete and controllable….to avoid the awkward moment rather than live in it.

When was the last time...

you felt things were out of control,
beyond what you could handle,
things were awkward, tension was thick?

Did you or someone do or say something
that let the air out of that momentas a quick fix for moment or skirting of the moment?

Remember the last time there was that awkward time around the family dinner table….and in the midst of the quiet someone asked you to pass the potatoes and then everyone starting passing and eating…and the awkward was gone…and so was the chance to move through the thing most needed in that moment. Or when you just had to clean the basement, paint that room, cut the grass, even when life called out to you.

These moments happen all the time…at work, in a meeting, in private conversation. Almost in a panic: Do something, say something! …anything….if you don’t really know what to do or to say…and the moment is lost for anything new to happen. Imagine what might have happened if you could only have found the way to say…even…this is awkward, I wish I knew what to say, I care.

Here’s the thing: Peter follows a man with no address, who is always on the move, and who has a totally different concept of home. The idea of a conventional response to what Peter had witnessed was absurd. So often we meet the extraordinary happenings of life with ordinary responses. We divert. We’re unsure. Peter. He misspoke…so God spoke! Imagine.

Listen to him.
Listen for what is true, has worth, can help. Listen.

Our word "worship" comes from the old Anglo-Saxon worth-ship. Listen. To worship means to see and to respond to the true worth of something, to recognize and to adore the value/worth of another, in nature, our faith. Listen.

If faith is "the conviction of things not seen", faith is the gift of being able to see what’s really gong on beneath the surface of things. …to see the real value…worth…in a moment to shape life in new ways…especially the awkward moments.

What is going on beneath the surface of your dinner gathering, meeting, conversation?
If you think on it anew, do you see the true value, worth of that moment and its potential to be life-giving….if you engage, go toward the stress, rather than divert?

A longing for true value, for the fruit of a moment…to see the really real….maybe this is why you come to worship in the first place.

You know how easy it is to become accustomed to the anesthetizing routine, how easy it is to have your vision dulled by the reassuring ordinariness of the everyday.

So you come into this gathering, into this high place hoping that the veil will be pulled back, the curtain will be lifted.
Hoping that for a shining moment, you will be able to see the world as it really is…full of beauty. Everything would be…..transfigured!

Oh for a moment of wonder and awe where there is not even the temptation to build or fix…to talk too much or to go silent!

Oh to enter the mystery of what can be and leave behind what has been….to live in the present, new moment where all things are possible

…because in this moment there is the possibility for new freedom…to be fully conscious of the spirit’s presence in your life.

~We are about to enter the mystery of Easter prepared by the stories of Lent.
~We go in with greater clarity this year.
~We enter opening to grace.
~We enter through the door of intention…to respond to the miraculous in amazing new ways…soulfully: body, mind, and spirit!

We are about to enter the mystery. We have had our own mountain top experiences and perhaps responded to them in absurdly mundane, routine ways…but now we intend to recapture the awe, to worth-ship daily, to live our newness into everyday life.

Jesus is our guide. Imagine.
God is touching our very souls.